NDA bags all posts as YSRCP boycotts Andhra public accounts committee polls

The voting took place in the assembly committee hall through a preferential voting system, with MLAs casting their votes using ballot papers

The opposition YSR Congress Party on Friday skipped the elections to the public accounts committee (PAC) of the Andhra Pradesh state legislature, paving way for the unanimous election of the ruling Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance members.

NDA bags all posts as YSRCP boycotts Andhra public accounts committee polls

As the 10-day winter session of the state assembly concluded on Friday, speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu announced the election of TDP members Pulaparthi Ramanjaneyulu (Jana Sena), Sriram Rajagopal, B V Jayanageswara Reddy, Arimilli Radhakrishna, Ashok Reddy, Burla Ramanjaneyulu, Nakka Anandbabu, Kolla Lalitha Kumari (all TDP) and P Vishnu Kumar Raju (Bharatiya Janata Party) as the members of the PAC.

The voting took place in the assembly committee hall through a preferential voting system, with MLAs casting their votes using ballot papers.

Senior YSRCP lawmaker and former minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, who filed his nomination for the PAC on Thursday, stayed away from the polling. The YSRCP has only 11 members in the assembly, while it requires a minimum of 20 MLAs to win the election.

Of the elected NDA members, senior lawmaker from Bhimavaram Pulaparthi Ramanjaneyulu will be declared as the PAC chairman. He was nominated by party president and deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan.

The PAC has, in all, 12 members, including the chairperson. Of the 11 members, three will be chosen from the legislative council. The NDA did not field any MLC candidates for the member posts, as it has only 10 members in the 58-member council, whereas the YSRCP has 38 members.

The speaker also announced the constitution of estimates committee and public enterprises committee (PEC). The estimates committee comprises Bhuma Akhila Priya, Bandaru Satyanandam, Valmiki Parthasarathy, Eluri Sambasiva Rao, Nimmaka Jayakrishna, Kandula Narayana Reddy and Sudhir Kumar.

The PEC has been constituted with A Ananda Rao, Eshwar Rao, Satyanarayana, Gouthu Shireesha, Kuna Ravi Kumar, Varla Kumar Raja, Tenali Sravan Kumar, Vasantha Krishna Prasad and Ranga Rao.

Reacting to the elections to the PAC and other committees, YSRCP spokesperson T Chandrasekhar describing it as a dark day in parliamentary democracy, as the ruling NDA had denied PAC chairman post to the opposition party, with the singular intention that no one should question its irregularities in managing state finances.

“It has been a convention and practice in parliamentary democracy to appoint the member from the opposition as chairman of the PAC irrespective of the number of MLAs it has, but the coalition government has done away with it making a mockery of the institution,” Chandrasekhar said.

He said the YSRCP with 11 eleven seats is the only Opposition left in the assembly and to deprive it of PAC post is nothing short heckling at the institution, which is meant to be a watchdog of the public finance and how it is being spent by the ruling party.